Gods of Starfinder, Part Two

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Gods are undeniable entities of immense power and in Starfinder, religion provides a measure of assurance that one will be taken care of in the afterlife. The people of the Pact Worlds venerate a multitude of gods and goddesses, but there are 20 deities who are widely worshiped throughout the system—the "core deities" of the Starfinder setting. We've revealed details on 13 of Starfinder's "core 20" gods so far (check the links at the bottom of this post if you missed one of the earlier previews)—now it's time to show off the rest!

First, let's look at some more deities who were worshiped on lost Golarion, and who remain popular in the Pact Worlds millennia later.

Abadar

LN god of civilization, commerce, law, and wealth

The Master of the First Vault is dedicated to spreading civilization, free trade, and the rule of law across the Material Plane, and his church, AbadarCorp, is one of the most powerful corporations in the Pact Worlds.

Besmara

CN goddess of piracy, space monsters, and strife

Once a minor nautical deity, Besmara seized her current power and position as her prize when she deposed another deity in a daring raid during the Gap.

Desna

CG goddess of dreams, luck, stars, and travelers

Desna and her faith have changed little since the pre-Gap era. The Song of the Spheres encourages her followers to believe in themselves, indulge their desires, experience all they can, express their inner strengths, and trust their instincts.

Urgathoa

NE goddess of disease, gluttony, and undeath

Urgathoa's faith is shunned, if not outright banned, on most civilized worlds, but the undead inhabitants of Eox openly worship the Pallid Princess, who is said to be the universe's first undead creature.

Nyarlathotep

CE Outer God of conspiracies, dangerous secrets, and forbidden magic

Said to possess a thousand different forms, the Crawling Chaos is an Outer God and the prime mover in preparing countless worlds for the devastating return of the Great Old Ones.

Finally, let's look at two more of Starfinder's new gods, also widely worshiped throughout the Pact Worlds: Damoritosh the Conqueror and Ibra the Inscrutable.

Damoritosh, The Conqueror

LE god of conquest, duty, and war

Damoritosh is the primary patron god of the vesk, but the Conqueror's faith has spread throughout the Pact Worlds to mercenaries, soldiers, and warriors of all species. The vesk have always been a race of warriors and conquerors, and Damoritosh remains a pillar of vesk society. To them, war and conquest are woven into the fabric of the universe. One can choose to embrace this truth and secure a place in history with one's triumphs, or one can deny it and die a coward's death, scorned and forgotten. War requires sacrifice, however, and it is the duty of everyone in society to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to propel one's species—or culture, empire, kingdom, or world—to victory.

Damoritosh is a harsh deity, with no concern for freedom or comfort. The Conqueror demands soldier-like obedience from all who seek his blessing and pushes his followers to strive for victory at all costs. Courage is an admirable trait, as is a militaristic sense of honor and oath keeping, but the will to fight and the drive to win are far more important than such noble ideals as bravery or heroism. Damoritosh is uninterested in diplomacy, as force and military prowess can win far greater rewards in a shorter amount of time, but he also encourages the acceptance of a foe's honorable surrender to avoid wasting lives for no additional gain.

Ibra, The Inscrutable

N god of celestial bodies, the cosmos, and mysteries of the universe

The universe is a vast expanse of wonders. Ibra is a god of these marvels—distant galaxies, misty nebulae, all the spinning worlds that orbit countless suns, and the empty void that stretches between them. Science can explain all of these and more, but the magnificence of the cosmos knows no bounds, and there are always new miracles and mysteries waiting to be discovered, explored, and explained. Ibra itself is one of these cosmic enigmas. No one in the Pact Worlds knows what species first venerated Ibra as a god. It has no gender or defined physical form, and it's unclear whether Ibra is a deity who sprang into being when the universe as born, some alien paragon who ascended to godhood, or a personification of the cosmos itself.

Ibra's followers believe that one can find truth, serenity, and meaning in the beauty of the cosmos, but it is up to the individual to decipher the universe's secrets to discover these rewards. It is not Ibra's place to reveal the answers to creation's great questions, and the Inscrutable rewards those who push the boundaries of knowledge and science to explore the universe and bring its wonders to light. To Ibra, there is no law or chaos, no good or evil: only the questions raised by the shining light of a newborn star, the beautiful dance of heavenly bodies, and the perfect solitude of the comet as it hurtles through the dark, regardless of whether the answers to those questions are ever found.

And that wraps up the 20 core gods of Starfinder. But while these deities may be the most ubiquitous in the Pact Worlds, every culture has its own gods, traditions, and philosophies, each with their own widespread followings. All of these are fully detailed in the upcoming Starfinder Core Rulebook, but you can get more of a sense of what faith and religion look like in Starfinder by checking out some of our earlier previews on the Paizo blog, Beasts of War, and Major Spoilers!

If Besmara actually deposed a deity from divine status as opposed to just major status, Torag is the most likely candidate since it is unlikely that any single deity could have taken out Rovagug. So far no other deities have been confirmed as missing.

Eloritu, Ibra and Nyarlothotep seem likely to fight over secrets and mysteries, and come into conflict with the inquisitive Lao Shu Po and Yaraesa (Ya-ray-sa? Another victim for Wacky Pronunciation Time)

If Besmara actually deposed a deity from divine status as opposed to just major status, Torag is the most likely candidate since it is unlikely that any single deity could have taken out Rovagug. So far no other deities have been confirmed as missing.

On one hand, Torag is missing. On the other, he didn't have dominion over monsters. Lamashtu did. And she's not quite as big a deal now as she once was.

Actually, it's kind of interesting that the major fiend deities seemed to have been knocked down a peg.

Well none of the things Besmara represents are necessarily evil, piracy is all about freedom(you can have pirates that liberate slaves and only steal from corrupt politicians for example), space monsters are probably mostly mindless beasts, and strife is kind of natural force even though it's a negative one. Based on the fact that she's got space monsters in her portfolio it makes sense that she'd have stolen it from Lamashtu.

We have only been told about two deities missing: Torag and Rovagug. Also, deposed does not mean killed. I would wager that Lamashtu is a lesser deity than she was because of Besmara and that Besmara may have had nothing to do with Torag and Rovagug.

Well none of the things Besmara represents are necessarily evil, piracy is all about freedom

From Mirriam-Webster:

Piracy.
1: an act of robbery on the high seas; also : an act resembling such robbery

2: robbery on the high seas

Piracy is not all about freedom. It's all about theft. And the type Besmara promotes is specifically armed theft.

If Damoritosh "I want to conquer everybody through force of arms" is evil, then Besmara, "I glorify strife and the attacking of ships (in hard vacuum) to take what they're carrying" isn't too far behind.

With respect to, "you can have pirates that liberate slaves and only steal from corrupt politicians for example"? That's certainly possible. And those guys probably worship Desna or Weydan.

Ibra is awesome.
Desna is still awesome.
Besmara is still... not evil somehow, even though she's at least as nasty as Damoritosh.

I am meh about all of these.

Desna's one of my favorite deities from Pathfinder, but the blurb here up makes her seem a bit more hedonistic than she did in pathfinder. Might be misreading that though.

Inbra's concept it awesome- the "deity of cselestial bodies" sounds awesome. However... well, honestly, I always thought Desna filled that roll. And the write up here makes it seem... well, I'm not sure what the write up is. A wierd sort of moral relativism? It's hard to describe.

But again, most of Ibra seems like it could have been filled by Desna.

And now we have Besmara. Because the god of killing people and taking their stuff for personal gain is somehow "neutral". At least Damoritosh seems to (in a twisted sense ) value individuals sacrificing themselves for the sake of others, which is more than Besmara can say. I'm fine with her being in the core 20, but she's getting the CE alignment she deserves in my games.

On the topic of Damoritosh- on the one hand, I'm glad we've got a dentist of military conquest, and love the concept. However, about him being the deity of duty.... that ought to be Iomidae's realm of influence. I really don't like an evil deity getting that sphere of influence.

Overall, I like the Starfinder pantheon, but I'll definitely be making changes to it in my home brew games.

If Besmara actually deposed a deity from divine status as opposed to just major status, Torag is the most likely candidate since it is unlikely that any single deity could have taken out Rovagug. So far no other deities have been confirmed as missing.

On one hand, Torag is missing. On the other, he didn't have dominion over monsters. Lamashtu did. And she's not quite as big a deal now as she once was.

Actually, it's kind of interesting that the major fiend deities seemed to have been knocked down a peg.

Besmara always had dominion over Sea Monsters. They just changed Sea for Space.

Piracy is primarily selfish though. I do whatever I have to do for myself, take what I want, and do what I want. Neutral.

Damoritosh is about conquering and oppression and imposing your will on people. War for the sake of war, with no actual goal, that's just how the universe is. More along the lines if evil (though I'd actually pegged him for neutral initially)

Question, why is Damoritosh LE and not LN? Neither his portfolio nor his writing suggests particular evil over neutrality, specially when he seems the lawful counterpart of Gorum rather than a deity more like Moloch. Sure, he does forgo honor and such when necessary for victory, but he says when necessary (and not when pragmatic, because a victory at higher costs remains a victory). And Ragathiel remains as an example of a LG god which doesn't do diplomacy, which means that his undiplomatic attitude shouldn't be a quality to make him evil.

If Besmara actually deposed a deity from divine status as opposed to just major status, Torag is the most likely candidate since it is unlikely that any single deity could have taken out Rovagug. So far no other deities have been confirmed as missing.

On one hand, Torag is missing. On the other, he didn't have dominion over monsters. Lamashtu did. And she's not quite as big a deal now as she once was.

Actually, it's kind of interesting that the major fiend deities seemed to have been knocked down a peg.

My take would be the opposite on Lamashtu...I would see her as being a bigger deal now. Forget about all those planets just filled with new monsters to crossbreed...but think of a cultist that happens to a geneticist can do...

Question, why is Damoritosh LE and not LN? Neither his portfolio nor his writing suggests particular evil over neutrality, specially when he seems the lawful counterpart of Gorum rather than a deity more like Moloch. Sure, he does forgo honor and such when necessary for victory, but he says when necessary (and not when pragmatic, because a victory at higher costs remains a victory). And Ragathiel remains as an example of a LG god which doesn't do diplomacy, which means that his undiplomatic attitude shouldn't be a quality to make him evil.

Because he promote war as the ONLY way to be relevant. If you are not a warrior you are nothing mentality kind makes me think of evil.

Question, why is Damoritosh LE and not LN? Neither his portfolio nor his writing suggests particular evil over neutrality, specially when he seems the lawful counterpart of Gorum rather than a deity more like Moloch. Sure, he does forgo honor and such when necessary for victory, but he says when necessary (and not when pragmatic, because a victory at higher costs remains a victory). And Ragathiel remains as an example of a LG god which doesn't do diplomacy, which means that his undiplomatic attitude shouldn't be a quality to make him evil.

I would also add the fact that he "encourages the acceptance of a foe's honorable surrender to avoid wasting lives for no additional gain". I have never heard of an evil god of war that spares his enemies or cared about wasting lives...

Piracy is primarily selfish though. I do whatever I have to do for myself, take what I want, and do what I want. Neutral.

I read that exact same sentence and thought to myself "Exactly. That's why she's evil." Besides, doing whatever you "have" to do and whatever you "want" to do are often very different things.

Quote:

Damoritosh is about conquering and oppression and imposing your will on people. War for the sake of war, with no actual goal, that's just how the universe is. More along the lines if evil (though I'd actually pegged him for neutral initially)

Conquering for its own sake as evil, sure. I would dispute "imposing your will" and "oppression" as being inherently evil -although they certainly are more often then they are not. You could make the arguments that Paladins in Pathfinder are "imposing their will" on the Demons of the world wound (the paladins would rightfully call it something else, but the demons would certinaly say so).

In any case, I'm not disputing Damoritosh is evil. He is. But that's for the same reason that Gorum ought to have been considered evil, and I'd even say that he's less evil than Gorum is.

Question, why is Damoritosh LE and not LN? Neither his portfolio nor his writing suggests particular evil over neutrality, specially when he seems the lawful counterpart of Gorum rather than a deity more like Moloch. Sure, he does forgo honor and such when necessary for victory, but he says when necessary (and not when pragmatic, because a victory at higher costs remains a victory). And Ragathiel remains as an example of a LG god which doesn't do diplomacy, which means that his undiplomatic attitude shouldn't be a quality to make him evil.

Because he promote war as the ONLY way to be relevant. If you are not a warrior you are nothing mentality kind makes me think of evil.

Also no concern about Freedom or Comfort...also is kinda evil.

"No concern for Freedom or Comfort" means he doesn't care either way, not that he's against it.

And being a god of military duty, obvious parallels can be drawn to any martial order under history. Soldiers don't get to live in comfortable conditions when at war, and mutinity/desertion are nearly always capital crimes (or incredibly heavily punished) for a good reason, as a chain of command is necessary to keep an army running.

Also, it doesn't say war is the only way to be relevant. "war and conquest are woven into the fabric of the universe" Means that war and conquest (and perhaps violence in a larger part) are inherent parts of life, not that they are the only one worth noting. He's probably against pacifist stances, but there's many Good and Neutral gods that don't like pacifism either (and again, Gorum).

Pathfinder is very vague about what it considers piracy, one group of pirates in one of the books was a load of halflings that freed other halfling slaves from Chelish ships, and the Andoran Privateers are classed as a pirate organisation, It's such a mixed bag of people just doing whatever they want that I think CN makes sense.

Out of curiosity I looked up the Pathfinder definition of Chaotic Neutral:

"A chaotic neutral character follows his whims, he is an individualist, beholden to no one. He values his own liberty but doesn’t actively strive to protect freedom as that would make them chaotic good. He avoids authority, resents any sort of law or restriction, and challenges confining traditions. A chaotic neutral character does not intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy as such an action would have to be motivated either by good (a desire to liberate others or destroy tyranny) or evil (and a desire to make those who oppose him suffer just for the sake of it). A chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but his behaviour is not random, he has his own goals and aims and he will stick to them, even if they change regularly or do not coincide with those of his society."

I think this fits the broad idea of a pirate (at least how I imagine a decent number of fictional pirates) though there are probably gonna be a lot of exceptions since pirates are a pretty varied lot.

Besmara is the deity of both realistic pirates and disney pirates and all types that take to the sea. That is why she is considered CN. When you bring up Pirates in a fantasy setting has a somewhat idealized viewpoint of what pirates are. They think of dashing swashbuckling adventurers looking for treasure just as much as they think of the brutal bloodthirsty pirates ala Blackbeard. What people truly think of pirates in western culture is the idea of freedom via the sea and open waters, not being bound to any government or even fighting back against strict or oppressive ones. And in some instances, pirates where just that in real life maybe not necessarily as romanticized but "freedom fighter" in some cases. But realistic or not we live in a post-pirates of the Caribbean, a post treasure planet world. And you might say other deities might fulfill that role, but to have a deity of "Pirates" that encompasses all the good and bad that comes within that word is powerful. Much like how I'm sure their are corrupt portions of abadarcorp that forces people to work for petty pay(if any at all) while doing hard-labor, there are also those that focus on using industry to make the lives of all easier.

For those wondering why Asmodeus is no longer in the top 20 -- I suspect that a lot of people with LE tendencies found the straightforward militarism of Damaritosh far more appealing than the complex and deceptive legalistic maneuvering of Asmodeus.

I do find it interesting that, for 6 of the 9 alignmets, we seem to have one established Pathfinder deity and one alien deity.

Question, why is Damoritosh LE and not LN? Neither his portfolio nor his writing suggests particular evil over neutrality, specially when he seems the lawful counterpart of Gorum rather than a deity more like Moloch. Sure, he does forgo honor and such when necessary for victory, but he says when necessary (and not when pragmatic, because a victory at higher costs remains a victory). And Ragathiel remains as an example of a LG god which doesn't do diplomacy, which means that his undiplomatic attitude shouldn't be a quality to make him evil.

Because he promote war as the ONLY way to be relevant. If you are not a warrior you are nothing mentality kind makes me think of evil.

Also no concern about Freedom or Comfort...also is kinda evil.

"No concern for Freedom or Comfort" means he doesn't care either way, not that he's against it.

And being a god of military duty, obvious parallels can be drawn to any martial order under history. Soldiers don't get to live in comfortable conditions when at war, and mutinity/desertion are nearly always capital crimes (or incredibly heavily punished) for a good reason, as a chain of command is necessary to keep an army running.

Also, it doesn't say war is the only way to be relevant. "war and conquest are woven into the fabric of the universe" Means that war and conquest (and perhaps violence in a larger part) are inherent parts of life, not that they are the only one worth noting. He's probably against pacifist stances, but there's many Good and Neutral gods that don't like pacifism either (and again, Gorum).

I am guessing you are missing the part where it is says if you are not a warrior you are coward and are unimportant and should be scorned...

And sure military discipline and duty is how you need to run a army...but I get the vibe that he thinks all of society should be like that...

I think it is the L part that screams Evil to me as oppose to Gorum's C part seems to allow for a a more neutral stance.

Overall in Chaotic faiths you will see more interpretations of the faith than say Lawful faiths.

Overall in Chaotic faiths you will see more interpretations of the faith than say Lawful faiths.

I disagree with that, actually. Chaotic types are unlikely to worry about semantics or hairsplitting interpretative details.

They aren't likely to tolerate a five day seminar on 'What did Abadar mean by 'blessed are the cheesemakers,' they just want to get on eating the cheese already.

I think you'll find that Abadar actually said "Blessed are the cheese-crafters." Chapter V, Paragraph 4, sub-paragraph p of Abadar's Big Book of Civilization specifically says that cows are ineligible for blessing.

Pretty sure Damoritosh being Evil has less to do with him being a God of War (which is neutral in Paizo's view of alignment) and more to with being a God of Conquest. Maybe I'm looking at him to closely but the guy seems to a be social darwinist and cultural imperialist that demands that you stand by your race, species, planet, etc at the expense of all others who happen to be weaker that you.

That seems pretty Evil to me and has been used as an excuse for everything from bullying to genocide.

Besmara gets a pass because fantasy and scifi pirates are constantly depicted as lovable rogues (Captain Harlock, Strawhat Luffy, Jack Sparrow) instead of the a*%&@~@s they historically were. Also, let's be honest and admit Chaotic Neutrals, even when played right, come across as selfish a#~+$*!s.

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